River Valley Conference (Illinois)

Last updated
River Valley Conference
Conference IHSA
Founded1940
Sports fielded
  • 5
No. of teams10
Region Illinois

The River Valley Conference is a high school sports Conference in northeastern and two high schools in a southern suburbs is "Illinois Lutheran and Beecher High School in Illinois, United States. The conference is part of the Illinois High School Association. The conference started around 1940 as the Kankakee Valley Conference, making up schools from the Kankakee County and Will County area. The conference had split into two divisions (Kan-Will and Will-Ro-Kee) in 1953 to make football scheduling more manageable, but maintained the conference in basketball and other sports. [1] With the Iroquois and Vermilion Valley conferences folding, the KVC took on some of their members, prompting the change to its current name. The biggest shift since then occurred in 2006, as its larger schools left to join schools with similar membership, leaving the RVC as a rural, smaller school conference. In 2020, Grace Christian became a full IHSA member, and joined the RVC. This brought the amount of teams up to 8. Momence and Clifton Central are set to join the RVC in 2021, due to the dissolving of the Sangamon Valley Conference. This will bring the conference up to 10 teams.

Contents

Membership

Current

SchoolLocationMascotColorsAreasCountyIHSA EnrollmentClassYear JoinedPrevious Conference
Beecher Beecher Bobcats   South Suburbs Will 3542Apre-1948
Clifton Central Clifton Comets   East Illinois Iroquois 292.52A2021 Sangamon Valley
Donovan Donovan Wildcats   East Illinois Iroquois 69.51A1989 Iroquois
Gardner-South Wilmington Gardner Panthers   Northeast Illinois Grundy 179.51A1989 Vermilion Valley
Grace Christian Academy Kankakee Crusaders    East Illinois Kankakee 73.51A2020
Grant Park Grant Park Dragons   East Illinois Kankakee 1391Apre-1948
Illinois Lutheran Crete Chargers   South Suburbs Will 1041A2006 Tollway
Momence Momence Redskins   East Illinois Kankakee 3072A2021 Sangamon Valley
St. Anne St. Anne Cardinals   East Illinois Kankakee 1751Apre-1948
Tri-Point Cullom Chargers   East Illinois Livingston 111.51A2011 Sangamon Valley

Former

Note: records before 1948-49 are incomplete. Some teams may have played in the conference before the date recorded, other schools may have played in the conference's early years.

SchoolLocationMascotColorsCountyYear JoinedPrevious ConferenceYear LeftConference Joined
Bonfield Bonfield Braves   Kankakee pre-19401941none (consolidated into Reddick)
Crete-Monee 1 Crete Warriors   Will 1940none (new school)1962 Southeast Suburban
R.U.C.E. 2 Reddick Bulldogs   Kankakee 19441956 Northeast
Bishop McNamara 3 Kankakee Irish   Kankakee pre-19481989 Chicago Catholic
Bradley-Bourbonnais Bradley Boilermakers   Kankakee pre-19481962 Southeast Suburban
Gilman Gilman Owls   Iroquois pre-19481962 Vermilion Valley
Manteno Manteno Panthers   Kankakee pre-19482006 Interstate 8
Momence Momence Redskins   Kankakee pre-19482006 Sangamon Valley
Peotone Peotone Blue Devils   Will pre-19482006 Interstate 8
Central Clifton Comets   Iroquois 1950none (new school)1980 Wauseca
Herscher 4 Herscher Tigers   Kankakee 1950 Vermilion Valley 2006 Interstate 8
  1. Known as Crete until 1948.
  2. Known as Reddick until 1950.
  3. Known as St. Patrick until 1955.
  4. Herscher played concurrently in the KVC and VVC from 1950 to 1954.

See also

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References

  1. Illinois HS Glory Days (2005-01-30). "The Great Conferences" . Retrieved 2014-02-10.

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